Tick, Tick, Path
by Nanaki Lioness
Summary: [DeiItaDei, AU, Pathverse] Total perfection is only an illusion, but it's one that Itachi is really good at. Deidara and Sasuke are less than pleased about it. A prelude to future events.


Disclaimer: The characters, items, places etc of Naruto are property of Masashi Kishimoto. These objects are used without permission for entertainment only, not for making money. No infringement is intended.

_Set in an AU universe I've written about before (look for anything with Path in the title, starting with The Preferable Path To Perfection Is You), and may not make total sense without some knowledge of it. Itachi and Deidara are in an established relationship._

_This is to set the scene for a multi-chapter to come._

**Tick, Tick, Path**

By Nanaki Lioness

There were few places more depressing to work at than a hospital. On top of that, just to add further misery to it, Sasuke had been assigned to work in the mortuary for the week. He would have much rather been in the infection lab; at least there they had something a little more exciting to do than testing samples from stiffs, who had the audacity to be silent and not answer when spoken to. He would even prefer to be in general pathology, including weighing up the possibility of running into the general public.

Still, biochemistry covered a lot of areas, and as someone who was in his placement year he knew he was going to get the short end of the stick when it came to being assigned sometimes. He could handle it, but that didn't mean he wouldn't sulk about it. At least he was done for the day, with an evening to relax ahead of him.

Or not. He scowled as he approached his front door, stopping to size up his visitors. Deidara jumped up from his spot sitting on the step and waved, while Itachi gave him a smile from his post leaning against the door.

"Why are you here?" He growled, shoving Itachi aside to open the door.

"Good evening to you too, Sasuke," Itachi said plainly. "It's so nice to see you, Sasuke. That's how we usually greet people."

"It's not a good evening, I've been in the mortuary all day. Why are you _here_?"

"Itachi forgot the house keys today," Deidara said, clearly enjoying the whole situation far too much. "He said you had a spare. We thought we'd come to your house for it to save you having to come to us after work."

"You didn't think to text first?"

"Isn't this more fun?"

"Fun for who? You?"

Deidara beamed widely at him. "I'm really just enjoying laughing at your brother, to be honest."

"It's been a really long day," Itachi said with a sigh, rubbing his eyes with one hand tiredly.

Sasuke stepped aside to let them in, not wanting to deal with the drama if he didn't. "What did the little brats do this time?"

"I set my Year Eight class homework to research and write about Tunisia. A group of them conspired and they all wrote essays about camels instead."

"It's brilliant, isn't it?" Deidara said, badly hiding his laughter. "I love it. It's so inventive."

"That's actually pretty funny," Sasuke agreed. "So what wonderful things did you learn about camels, dear brother?"

"If you think I actually read ten different essays about camels, you are very much mistaken."

Sasuke's living room was a mess of research papers and cats toys. Deidara picked up a catnip mouse from the sofa like it was diseased, discarding it to the floor and sitting down. Itachi sat next to him, closing his eyes and leaning his head back. Within seconds of them sitting down a cream coloured Sphynx cat jumped up into Deidara's lap, causing him to yelp in surprise.

"I wish they wouldn't do that," he said, eyeing the cat suspiciously. "Which one is this anyway? How do I tell the two gremlins of the apocalypse apart?"

"They do have name tags but just in case you can't read, Famine has a black collar," Sasuke said, indicating the one on Deidara's lap. "Pestilence has a green collar. He wants you to stroke him, not stare at him like a moron."

"I don't want to touch it though. It doesn't have fur, Sasuke. There's something wrong with that."

"Stop calling him an it," Sasuke said sharply, moments from throwing something at Deidara. Instead he left the room to make coffee, figuring if his they were sitting down they were expecting some kind of hospitality.

"They're actually pretty cute," Itachi said as he petted Famine behind the ear. "You shouldn't be so unkind about them. Some cats don't have tails, others don't have fur. It doesn't mean they're any less of a cat."

"But they always sit on _me_. Why do they never sit on you?"

"Sasuke probably trained them that way," Itachi said with a smirk.

"I thought he was allergic to them anyway," Deidara said, shoving Famine off onto Itachi's lap instead.

"They're hairless. That's the whole point, he's much better with them."

"We should get a cat then. A really big fluffy cat with long fur, yeah. We could spread the fur around our house like some kind of anti-Sasuke barrier."

"Can you just be nice? He's taking time out of his day to help us. Be grateful."

Sasuke came back with coffee for himself and Itachi, staring impassively at Deidara when he looked expectantly at him. "You know where the kitchen is."

"Sasuke," Itachi said warningly.

"I made him one, don't worry," Sasuke bit back, stalking off to get it.

When he came back he had a second identical Sphynx cat following him expectantly, jumping up onto the table next to him when he sat down at it. This was Pestilence, who Sasuke petted fondly for a moment before turning his attention back to his brother.

"So go on, fill me in. How did you manage to forget your keys?"

"Does it really matter?" Itachi said wearily. "Just know that I did, and I'm not happy about it."

"Didn't you bring yours, Deidara?" Sasuke asked.

"Nah. Honestly, I always forget mine. I know Itachi doesn't though, so it's usually okay."

"And yet _that's_ okay," Itachi said irritably. "You can forget yours every day, but when I forget mine suddenly everyone expects there to be a big reason why. Can I not just forget my keys like everybody else once in a while?"

"You're really not good at this being fallible thing, are you?" Deidara pointed out. "At least give your brother the real story. If you'd forgotten and just got on with your day that would have been fine. But instead you forgot them, panicked that you'd forgotten them, and then spent the day obsessing about it."

It didn't escape Sasuke's notice there was a sharpness to the air as the two spoke. It was more than just teasing; there was something insidious hidden under the surface. He observed, one hand absently petting Pestilence, and said nothing.

"I'd hardly call it obsessing."

"Itachi, you flipped about a bunch of kids giving you essays about camels. What the hell was that about?"

"I didn't ask for essays about camels, did I?"

"Sure, but it wasn't really a big deal. I set assignments that students half-ass all the time. It's just what kids do. I heard them talking about it in my lesson this afternoon, and they said you were really mad about it."

"I didn't yell at them, Deidara. I just made it clear that when I set assignments, I expect them to be written on the subject required, that's all."

"Clear," Deidara repeated. "Right. Apparently you were so bitingly clear one of the girls said, and I quote, 'Mr. Uchiha must be having a really bad day because he was an asshole in geography class this morning.' I assured her you were actually having a bad day and she went back to admiring you again, don't worry."

"And I'm allowed to have bad days, aren't I?"

Deidara gave him a mildly concerned look, which didn't go unnoticed by Sasuke. "Itachi, I'm getting a little worried about you, yeah. You're so tense all the time lately."

"That isn't exactly a new thing," Sasuke pointed out. Deidara turned to him and shook his head fervently.

"No, it's not the same," he said, but he didn't elaborate. Uncomfortable silence descended, where Deidara fretted about something unsaid, Itachi stared into his coffee cup uneasily, and Sasuke found himself unsure about how to break the standoff.

"You know you didn't have to visit me to have an argument," he said, because he was quite fine with playing the asshole if it got Itachi to talk. "What's going on with you guys?"

Deidara looked even more troubled, glancing across to Itachi. Itachi ignored him and laid one hand on Famine lightly, who was now curled up against his side. He gave Sasuke an easy smile. "Sorry, Sasuke. I'm just tired."

Deidara's demeanour said he clearly didn't accept that as an answer, so neither did Sasuke. Outwardly he didn't say it though, picking up Pestilence and dropping her into Deidara's lap.

"Pet her," he demanded. "She's a little friendlier than Famine."

"What a choice that is," Deidara said levelly. "Famine or Pestilence. Are you planning on getting War and Death?"

"Not right now. Maybe another time. Pet her, she's expecting it."

Deidara nudged the cat off and folded his arms crossly. "Stop forcing your weird wrinkly cats on me."

"You force your existence on me," Sasuke shot back easily, but both he and Deidara backed down right there to save building even more tension in the room. He took a moment to study his sibling, narrowing his eyes in question after a moment and crouching down in front of him. Itachi stared at him in surprise.

"What are you doing?"

"Studying you," Sasuke said truthfully. "There's something off about you. Have you lost weight? Not been sleeping well? I can't put my finger on it."

Itachi poked him irritably on the forehead. "Stop that. I'm fine."

"You two aren't though, are you?" Sasuke looked between them, standing up and saying nothing more. He took their house key from a hook by the door and tossed it to Itachi, who caught it easily. "I'm done socialising. Go home and make up, would you?"

"So polite, as always," Deidara said as he stood up and headed for the door. Itachi followed, closely watched by Sasuke. Once they were gone Sasuke felt his phone vibrate in his pocket, pulling it out to read a text from Deidara.

'_You're right, he's not himself. I don't know what to do about it because he won't talk.'_

Sasuke sighed and put his phone away again, sinking back onto the sofa with a heavy sigh. Both cats crowded him immediately, lying across and beside him like guardians as he looked up at the ceiling in thought. He was no stranger to Itachi's moments of idiocy when he was deeply entrenched in his own mind's worries, but this was different. He was riled about something, and his unwillingness to talk about it was concerning. Usually he'd open up a little when pushed, but Deidara was indicating that wasn't the case this time.

Late into the evening, when he was staring up at the stars from the porch while smoking, he locked eyes with a visitor at his gate. Deidara looked like he needed an invitation to enter, so Sasuke beckoned him.

"Does he know you're here?"

"No," Deidara said, sitting down beside Sasuke. "He's asleep."

"What the hell is going on with him?"

"I wish I knew. He's freaking out about the strangest things lately. It's like he's constantly anxious or something."

"Maybe he is," Sasuke reasoned, tapping ash off of his cigarette and looking back up to the stars. "What's different? Something must be different."

"Nothing that I know of. He's so-" Deidara paused, struggling to come up with the right word. "It's like he's constantly on edge, yeah. The other night he was marking assignments and his pen ran out halfway through him writing a comment. I swear, Sasuke, I thought he might actually cry. Either that or scream, I don't know. It was like the last straw for him, but I don't know what any of the other straws even _are_."

"What did he do?"

"He freaked out completely. He couldn't get rid of the paper because it was a student's work, not his, so he had to write back over the faded part with a new pen. It was the kind of thing I'd have expected of Itachi five years ago, not now. When I questioned him on it, he got tetchy and closed off."

"When did he last go to therapy?"

"About a year ago. Maybe a year and a half. He faked his way to discharge, of course."

"Of course," Sasuke echoed shortly. "I don't know how you keep your patience with him sometimes. He's an idiot."

"I don't," Deidara admitted. "It's been difficult lately. Is being perfect more important than me? We're back to the same question I asked five years ago, yeah."

"Then maybe you need to ask him that question again."

"I honestly don't know if I want the answer."

"I can try to talk to him, but if he's adamant about keeping quiet he won't spill anything to me. The fact he hasn't come to me already means that's probably the case. Are you sure nothing has changed?"

"Not recently, but maybe it's been a long time coming."

Sasuke pondered that for a moment before nodding in agreement. "I guess so. He's always been a little like a bomb with a countdown."

Deidara seemed to realise something, instantly looking happier as he gave Sasuke a confident smile. "I'm a bomb expert, yeah. I've stopped him exploding all this time, haven't I? Maybe he just needs a little nudge towards zero for once."

"Careful," Sasuke warned. "That's a dangerous game."

"I'm talking about as a last resort," Deidara said as he stood up. "Don't worry. I'm not going to let him do anything drastic. Thanks for the talk, Sasuke."

Sasuke watched him leave, unsure how to take what Deidara had told him. As much as he disliked it he understood where Deidara was coming from. Itachi was falling anyway; better to nudge him and be ready to catch him as he fell, than to let him fall alone three steps later. What he didn't know was what Deidara actually meant to do if it came to it.

"You had better know what you're doing," he muttered to the brisk spring air, standing and heading back inside. A storm was coming, and he didn't mean the weather.

-.-.-

_Author's Notes: A prelude to the future Path fic. All is not well in perfection world._

_The future Path fic (still unnamed, oops) is about 80% complete as a draft and running smoothly to the finish, but has undergone quite a number of changes and edits so I'm hanging on to it until complete. Then I'll edit each chapter and post._

_On a personal note to anyone that remembers me or this fic series, hello! It's been a very long time coming, and I apologise for that. Since finishing the last multi-chapter in 2011 there have been a lot of changes in life; Baby A starts the UK equivalent of high school next year, and is really not a baby anymore! She has also been joined by the younger brother I was pregnant with during the last fic, and a younger sister. Collectively they keep me busy, but I wouldn't have it any other way._

_These characters, though not originally my own, have taken up a permanent spot in my mind and become so personally mine. I don't think I will ever be done with writing about them, even if it takes years like this time. Thank you for reading, especially if you're returning from before. I appreciate you taking time to re-visit this world with me all these years later._


End file.
